Amazon slashes price of 4G Kindle Fire HD by $100, expands tablet to Europe and Japan

Amazon announced Wednesday that it’s dropping the price of the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD in the United States, and is also rolling out the tablet in Europe and Japan.

The biggest price cut is for the 4G LTE Kindle Fire HD. The 32 GB version, which had been $ 499, gets a price drop to $ 399. The Wi-Fi-only version of the same tablet gets a price cut of $ 30 — to $ 269 for the 16 GB version and $ 299 for the 32 GB version.

Amazon is also launching the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, with Wi-Fi only, in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan. An Amazon spokeswoman told me that it will start at £229.00 (USD $ 341) in the U.K., €269 (USD $ 348) in Europe and ¥15,800 (USD $ 164) in Japan. (I’ve asked the company to clarify why the tablet costs more in Europe than it does in the U.S., and less in Japan.)

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, which launched last September, is Amazon’s answer to the iPad. Amazon also launched a 7-inch Wi-Fi Kindle Fire HD, which starts at $ 199, last fall; that tablet is not getting a price cut.

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